Going nonstop on one-stop voting

Area elections officials are working to make sure voters have no good excuse for failing to cast a ballot.

"In a very few days we're going to be facing what many people consider to be one of the most important elections in the history of our county, our state and our republic," said Bill Sylvester, chairman of the Onslow County Board of Elections.

"In order to facilitate that election, the board of elections has implemented some (new locations) to speed up the process."

Onslow County will have locations throughout the county for "no-excuse absentee voting," better known as One-Stop voting, from Thursday until Nov. 1, said Rose Whitehurst, director of the county's Board of Elections.

"We do have four One-Stop locations available this time, opening up Oct. 16," she said. "They'll be open every day, Monday through Friday, and they are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., so anyone who would like to vote early should go out and do so."

One Saturday only - Nov. 1 - the four locations will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The county has printed flyers to be placed in storefronts to encourage One-Stop voting and printed bookmarks to distribute at schools.

"The fact that we have a presidential election coming up, which is going to be very historical, we thought we needed to open up as many One-Stop sites as we could to accommodate the voting public ... A lot of people only vote once every four years in a presidential election, so we always have long lines during a presidential election," Whitehurst said.

She encourages voters to use One-Stop because they expect long lines all day long on election day.

"We expect a record turnout; in past years we have had around 50 to 52 percent of registered voters vote, this election we are expecting 70 to 75 percent or more," Whitehurst said.

From January 1 through October 8, there were 11,236 new registrants.

"I'll bet we signed up 300 people today, and yesterday we had signed up 121 people by 10 a.m., so Lord knows how many we did (Thursday)," she said.

The closing date for regular voter registration was Oct. 10, but it is not to late to register to vote, Whitehurst emphasized.

"Those people that did not get a chance that would like to register to vote ... they can go to one of the early voting sites, register and then vote at the same time, so there will be no excuse for those that don't get a chance to register during regular registration, they can do that at the One-Stop sites," she said.

She has been training the teams who will be working at the One-Stop locations, so they will better prepared to answer questions new voters may have.

The four One-Stop sites in Onslow County are Jacksonville Commons Recreation Center, Swansboro Middle School Annex, Tar Landing Baptist Church and Verona Fire Station.

Whitehurst said she expects many voters to use the Swansboro and Jacksonville Commons locations.

"The Swansboro Middle School voting will be done in the cafeteria part of the school; there will be signs pointing the way - it is easy to get in and out of," she said. "We think there is going to be a lot of early voting there.

"Everyone is most familiar with Jacksonville Commons - we expect it is going to be the hot spot this time, as always."

Carteret County has three One-Stop sites: Western Park Community Center, Bridgeway Church of the Nazarene and Crystal Coast Church of the Nazarene.

"We had to move the One-Stop from the Board of Election office to the Bridgeway Church because it was not big enough to accommodate the number of voters,"said Election Clerk Candace Fulcher.

These locations will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Those who wait until Nov. 1 will have to One-Stop vote at the Carteret County Board of Elections office from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The three other One-Stop locations in Carteret County will not be open that day.

To register to vote during One-Stop voting, a resident must fill out a voter registration application and prove residency by providing appropriate identification with current name and address. Acceptable forms of identification include: a N.C. drivers license with current address; a utility bill with name and current address; a document with name and current address from a local, state or U.S. government agency; a student identification along with a document from the school showing the student's name and current address; a paycheck or paycheck stub from an employer or a W-2 statement; or a bank statement or bank-issued credit card statement.

Registered voters will be able to update an address or change vital information in an existing registration record at the One-Stop site.

Contact Topsail area reporter Suzanne Ulbrich at sulbrich@freedomenc.com or 910-219-8454. Visit www.jdnews.com to comment on this report.